Natural Disasters14
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Tea Gardens to the Rescue
We switched to deploying our equipment for imaging faults and the structure beneath the surface to tea gardens to get away from power lines and buried the cables to protect them from gnawing foxes.
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Dealing With Rain and Rats
As we continued our geophysical measurements, we had to deal with heavy rains, flooding fields, and rats and foxes biting our cables. Many cables were broken soon after sunset, ruining the measurements.
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Fieldwork in Bangladesh During the End of Ramadan and Eid Festival
We have come to in Bangladesh in the pre-monsoon heat to better image the active faults beneath the surface using electromagnetic instruments. We are using the fallow fields from the just-harvested rice crop for our sites.
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What Can We Do About Extreme Weather?
Perhaps climate change policy will be a response to our growing experience with extreme weather events.
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In Madagascar, a Hurricane Simulation Transforms Into Real-life Disaster Response
Instead of leading a fictional disaster simulation as planned, Columbia researchers helped government agencies prepare for and respond to Tropical Cyclone Batsirai in real time.
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How Agencies and Communities Facing Wildfire Can Collaborate to Cut Risk Now
A talk with two leaders of the Biden administration’s effort to fight fire before things burn.
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U.N. Pushes to Cut Worldwide Vulnerability to Climate Extremes Through Better Early Warnings
All the satellite tracking of great storms, heat and other climate hazards doesn’t have value if those most in harm’s way aren’t reached in ways that boost resilience.
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Was It a Flash Flood or Not? Categorizing Disaster Types in Historical Records
Researchers develop new methods to assess flash flood risk to support anticipatory humanitarian action.
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Deploying in the Mangrove Forest
We continued our electromagnetic expedition to image fresh and saline groundwater into the Sundarbans Mangrove Forest, the world’s largest. While guards protected us from tigers, it was a wild boar that dug up some of our equipment.
By studying thousands of buildings and analyzing their electricity use, Columbia Climate School Dean Alexis Abramson has been able to uncover ways to significantly cut energy consumption and emissions. Watch the Video: “Engineering a Cooler Future Through Smarter Buildings“
